Role of epigenetics in corneal health and disease.

Epigenetics plays a vital role in corneal health and diseases. Epigenetic changes regulate the expression of genes by altering the accessibility of chromatin via histone modifications, DNA methylation and miRNAs without altering DNA sequence. Ocular trauma and infections are common causes of corneal damage, vision impairment, and mono/bilateral blindness worldwide.

Molecule specific effects of PKA-mediated phosphorylation on rat isolated heart and cardiac myofibrillar function.

Increased cardiac myocyte contractility by the β-adrenergic system is an important mechanism to elevate cardiac output to meet hemodynamic demands and this process is depressed in failing hearts. While increased contractility involves augmented myoplasmic calcium transients, the myofilaments also adapt to boost the transduction of the calcium signal. Accordingly, ventricular contractility was found to be tightly correlated with PKA-mediated phosphorylation of two myofibrillar proteins, cardiac myosin binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI), implicating these two proteins as important transducers of hemodynamics to the cardiac sarcomere.

European wildcat populations are subdivided into five main biogeographic groups: consequences of Pleistocene climate changes or recent anthropogenic fragmentation?

Extant populations of the European wildcat are fragmented across the continent, the likely consequence of recent extirpations due to habitat loss and over-hunting. However, their underlying phylogeographic history has never been reconstructed. For testing the hypothesis that the European wildcat survived the Ice Age fragmented in Mediterranean refuges, we assayed the genetic variation at 31 microsatellites in 668 presumptive European wildcats sampled in 15 European countries.

Conservative management of chronic kidney disease in cats: recommendations for veterinarians and compounding pharmacists.

Chronic kidney disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in aging cats, and assessment of that condition suggest that conservative management can provide substantial benefit for patients. The veterinarian's armamentarium is augmented each year with effective therapies for treating renal disease that are designed for human patients but can be successfully adapted for use in cats. The help of an experienced compounding pharmacist is invaluable in converting many of those treatments to the doses and dosage forms appropriate for veterinary patients.

Examination of synovial fluid hyaluronan quantity and quality in stifle joints of dogs with osteoarthritis.

Objective: To determine the quantity (concentration) and quality (molecular weight) of synovial fluid hyaluronan with respect to presence and severity of osteoarthritis in stifle joints of dogs.

Animals: 21 purpose-bred dogs and 6 clinically affected large-breed dogs (cranial cruciate ligament [CrCL] disease with secondary osteoarthritis).

Procedures: Research dogs underwent arthroscopic surgery in 1 stifle joint to induce osteoarthritis via CrCL transection (CrCLt; n=5 stifle joints), femoral condylar articular cartilage groove creation (GR; 6), or meniscal release (MR; 5); 5 had sham surgery (SH) performed.

Detection of lameness and determination of the affected forelimb in horses by use of continuous wavelet transformation and neural network classification of kinematic data.

Objective: To investigate continuous wavelet transformation and neural network classification of gait data for detecting forelimb lameness in horses.

Animals: 12 adult horses with mild forelimb lameness.

Procedure: Position of the head and right forelimb foot, metacarpophalangeal (ie, fetlock), carpal, and elbow joints was determined by use of kinematic analysis before and after palmar digital nerve blocks.

Jejunal obstruction caused by a Pythium insidiosum granuloma in a mare.

An 8-year-old Missouri Fox Trotter mare was examined because of intermittent, low-grade abdominal pain and weight loss for 3 months. Incomplete jejunal obstruction, caused by a granulomatous mass in the wall of the jejunum, was identified during exploratory celiotomy. Pythium insidiosum was identified as the cause of the granuloma.

Intrauterine position effects on steroid metabolism and steroid receptors of reproductive organs in male mice.

Mice differ in their adult reproductive characteristics as a function of whether they developed in utero between two male fetuses (2M males), which have higher testosterone levels, or between two female fetuses (0M males), which have higher estradiol levels. The present study was designed to further characterize biochemical parameters of 2M and 0M adult male mice. Activities of testicular steroidogenic enzymes, namely delta 5-3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/isomerase, 17 alpha-hydroxylase, and C17,20-lyase (C21SCC P450), were measured by means of radiometric assays and HPLC fractionation of substrate and products.

Oral Mucosa Bleeding Times of Normal Cats and Cats with Chediak-Higashi Syndrome or Hageman Trait (Factor XII Deficiency).

A commercially available, disposable blade in a spring-loaded cassette was used to measure oral mucosa bleeding times (OMBT) of ketamine/acepromazine-anesthetized cats. The OMBT were determined in cats homozygous for Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS, n = 7), cats heterozygous for CHS (n = 6), and cats homozygous for Hageman factor (factor XII) deficiency (n = 5). In addition, OMBT were determined in three groups of normal cats: random-source cats (n = 14), inbred normal relatives of the cats with CHS (n = 7), and inbred normal relatives of Hageman factor deficient cats (n = 9).

Cytochemical properties of chicken blood cells resembling both thrombocytes and lymphocytes.

Generally accepted criteria were used to identify typical nucleated thrombocytes and typical small lymphocytes in chicken-blood smears subjected to modified-Wright staining. Other cells, here referred to as "intermediate cells," were difficult to classify because in some aspects they resembled thrombocytes while they also had features typical of small lymphocytes. The "intermediate cells" had small, round or oval nuclei with coarsely condensed chromatin, characteristic of both thrombocytes and small lymphocytes.

The effects of EDTA-Tris infusion on the equine endometrium.

Four groups of five pony mares each were used to determine if the intrauterine infusion of EDTA-Tris solution caused adverse effects on the endometrium. The uteri of mares were infused with either saline or EDTA-Tris solution or biopsied or sham-biopsied without infusion. Acute endometritis developed in one (20%) to three (60%) mares in each group during the seven days following treatment, but there were no differences (P > 0.

Pregnancy diagnosis in swine: A comparison of the technique of rectal palpation and ultrasound.

The accuracy of pregnancy diagnosis in swine by rectal palpation and by ultrasound was compared using sows and gilts thirty days or more after breeding. A total of eighty-four pigs were included in this experiment and they were examined an average of thirty-nine days following breeding. Forty-nine animals were slaughtered within a few days of pregnancy examination and thirtyfive were allowed to farrow.